Educause is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the application of information technology to higher education. At a conference in October 2008, Educause members began to work on a list of the top challenges in teaching and learning. Their main focus is not so much in highlighting the issues, but

to be an experiment in community interaction and participation, in organizing peers to develop solutions and approaches that can be shared across geographic boundaries and institutions. The list of challenges is merely the agenda, set by the community. The true focus of the Challenges project is on knowledge-building: challenging higher education not only to list the issues but also to put the power of collective intelligence into action to address those issues.

The Challenges project thus represents a shift in member engagement. Instead of “pushing out” content through webcasts, white papers, or articles, the Challenges project “invites in” content from members, asking the community to contribute ideas and solutions or to participate in “lightning-round” presentations. This is a shift reflected in the growing Web 2.0 culture. Whereas Web 1.0 was characterized by the ability to search for information, Web 2.0 has focused on the ability to contribute information and add to dialogues through rich tools like wikis, blogs, and social networks. [full text]

They have now narrowed it down to the top 5 challenges for 2009:

• Creating learning environments that promote active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and knowledge creation
• Developing 21st-century literacies (information, digital, and visual) among students and faculty
• Reaching and engaging today’s learners
• Encouraging faculty adoption and innovation in teaching and learning with IT
• Advancing innovation in teaching and learning with technology in an era of budget cuts

It’s definitely worth a read. I’m applying some of the principles in my class next month and I’ll reflect here on how successful it was at the end.